Seventeen new cases of melioidosis were reported last week, making the total number of cases reported since Typhoon Gaemi the highest ever after a typhoon, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, while also reporting an increase in hospital visits for enterovirus.
There were 12 local cases of melioidosis in Kaohsiung last week, two in Tainan, two in Pingtung County and one in Taichung, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
Of the 17, 14 people had underlying health conditions and four died, she said.
Photo: CNA
Fifty-four local cases, including nine deaths, have been reported so far this year — the highest number for the same period in a decade, Lee said.
Among them, 47 cases, including seven deaths, were reported after Typhoon Gaemi struck Taiwan last month, she said.
Since melioidosis was listed as a notifiable communicable disease in 2005, the largest outbreak was in 2005, when a total of 42 cases, including eight deaths, were reported near Erren River (二仁溪) in southern Taiwan after Typhoon Haitang and Typhoon Talim, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
“So far 47 cases of melioidosis have been reported after Typhoon Gaemi, exceeding the record,” he said.
One of the four people who died last week was a man in his 70s living in Tainan, who sought medical treatment as he had difficulty breathing, CDC physician Tsou Tsung-pei (鄒宗珮) said.
He developed serious pneumonia and sepsis while in hospital and died four days after the onset of symptoms, Tsou said.
Another case of melioidosis was reported within 200m of where the man lived, so they could have been infected by bacteria from a contaminated environment nearby, she said.
Melioidosis cases usually increase after a typhoon, and the incubation period is about two to four weeks, but as some people with mild symptoms delay seeking medical attention until their symptoms worsen, the CDC is expecting more cases until the end of the month, Lo said.
“Early symptoms of melioidosis include a fever, headache, general fatigue or flu-like symptoms, but people with diabetes, cancer or underlying health conditions have a higher risk of developing serious complications, so they should seek medical attention promptly,” he said.
Meanwhile, 12,727 hospital visits for enterovirus were reported last week, an increase of 9.8 percent from a week earlier, Lee said.
Taiwan is still experiencing an enterovirus epidemic, Lee added.
Usually the number of enterovirus cases drops significantly when the summer vacation begins, but this year there was an epidemic throughout the summer, and although weekly hospital visits had continued to drop for six consecutive weeks, they rebounded last week, Lo said.
The reason could be that many children are attending summer school, daycare and summer camps this year, Lo said.
However, it could also be because the dominant virus strain changed from Coxsackievirus A16 between late June and early last month to Coxsackievirus A10, he said.
The enterovirus epidemic might peak in mid to late next month, after school starts, Lo said.
Aside from hand, foot and mouth disease and herpangina (mouth blisters), Coxsackievirus A10 can also cause acute lymphonodular pharyngitis, characterized by white non-vesicular lesions in the back of the throat, causing a serious sore throat, he said.
There are no vaccines for enteroviruses other than enterovirus A71, so children and their caregivers should to practice good personal hygiene, routinely disinfect their living and school environments, avoid crowded public spaces and seek medical attention if they develop suspected symptoms, the CDC said.
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